Talk:Chain Contingency/@comment-35434313-20180429005442
The Usage Note section as of today contains a lot of inaccurate/false information - beyond simple editing/revision - I want readers to be aware of a few things: 1) "Chain Contingency is the most powerful spell in all Baldur's Gate..." -- This is a speculation rather than a fact. Truth: there is no consensus here. If there has to be a list of candidates for the Most Powerful Spell nomination, then CC can hardly get into the top 3, which arguably have to be a contest among Time Stop, Project Image, Imprisonment, and IA. 2) "...regular Contingency which could only cast one use of a Level 6 or lower NON offensive spell." -- This is completely false. Truth: any one of the offensive and defensive spells, level 1 to 6, from the wizard and cleric spellbook may be put into Contingency, provided that the caster is able to cast it at the time of setting up the Contingency spell. On the other hand, a tiny number of "NON offensive spells" may not be put into Contingency, such as Identify or Knock (for obvious reasons). 3) "Even more ridiculous, in vanilla Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal, Chain Contingency was bugged to have no casting time... this bug was fixed in the final TOB patch..." -- There are multiple layers of false information. Truth: a) In vanilla SoA, PC and companion NPCs don't and can't have access to level 9 spellslots without cheating. Due to level cap imposed by original (vanilla) SoA, a wizard can only reach level 17. They can only have spellslots up to level 8. b) A spell with "no casting time" is not necessarily "ridiculous" or "more ridiculous." In fact, there are other spells with no casting time, such as Spell Immunity. c) Having no casting time is not necessarily a bug, and BG2 has never fixed such a non-existent bug. In fact, in both BG2 (with final patch or not) and today's BG2 EE, CC has the same casting time. 4) "By setting a condition of 'see enemy', a caster was capable of casting three Level 8 spells instantaneously. The prime target of this is Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, the strongest damage dealing spell in the game with a normal casting time of 8. This effectively allowed players to have an at-will nuke... it still lead to instantaneous death for most enemies." -- There are a few layers of false information. Truth: a) The spells stored in CC are not meant to be cast by the caster. They are meant to be cast by the game AI. b) The way how the spells stored in CC are cast is not controlled by the caster/player at all - the caster/player can only set the trigger condition to one of the options. This leads to certain unpredictable behaviors of CC. For example, when the "enemies sighted" condition of an active CC is satisfied, the CC does not always get fired up right away. It is possible that the delay is so significant that the enemies, who could have been wiped out by the spells stored in CC, may have already killed the caster when CC is finally triggered. It is not unusual to see BG2 liches get killed when their protective CC is triggered that was meant to prevent their death. c) Storing 3x ADHW in CC with the trigger condition of enemies sighted is only ONE of many ways of using CC. In TOB or late game, powerful enemies tend to have high magic resistance. As a result, putting 3x ADHW in CC tends to be an unwise way of wasting spells. d) Getting the result of 3x L8 spells in a non-player-controlled way for the cost of those 3x L8 spells plus an extra 1x L9 spell is a quick way to drain L8/9 spells. It is so costly, especially during active combat, that CC is never an at-will nuke and can never become one. 5) "Why was this spell so overpowered?..." -- This question treats an unproven opinion as if it had already been a widely known fact. Also, what follows the question that is supposed to offer an answer as to why, does not make sense.... Regardless, there are far more powerful spells and spell combos than a passive CC that consumes 1x L9 spell just so as to hand over 3 memorized (mage) or castable (sorcerer) spells to the game AI for casting them later upon a trigger condition. For example, if you are a sorcerer, unless under special circumstances (such as Dead Magic) or for self-defense purposes, why would you waste 1x L9 spell to let the game AI cast 3 of YOUR L8 spells on YOUR behalf? With a single L9 spell (Time Stop), could you not cast those 3 spells by yourself - uninterrupted during your Time Stop? If you are willing to combine 2x L9 spells (Time Stop + IA), you can cast dozens of spells uninterrupted during your Time Stop - potentially resulting in 1000s of raw damage in a large area. If 3x L8 spells (ADHW) cast on enemies on sight could kill most of them (not true in tough battles late game), would 20+ spells from level 1 to 9 cast during your Time Stop lead you to a guranteed victory? Compared to the cost of 1x L9 spell in setting up a passive CC, the only mandatory extra cost of using TS + IA is just another L9 spellslot. Example of the superiority of TS + IA 1x Lower Resistance (Note: meant to counter Spell Shield just in case) 1x Spellstrike 3x Lower Resistance 1x Breach 1x Remove Mage 6x Magic Missile 6x Acid Arrow 5x Skull Trap 6x Delay Blast Fireball 3x Dragon's Breath 3x ADHW => All the above spells can be cast during TS, with these net results: 1) One target has lost 90% or 120% magic resistance and all spell/combat protections 2) Raw damage with max near 2000 to all enemies in a large area 3) Up to 3x chances to knock down every enemy in the range (You could summon a Planetar to kill survivors, by casting only 2x Dragon's Breath) Note: a handful of enemies in BG2 /BG2EE are immune to your Time Stop. They will fight you during your Time Stop and may interrupt your spellcasting. Also, more than a handful of enemies cannot be touched by Lower Resistance and/or Breach, and some are completely immune to low-level spells. So the above example only serves as a demonstration. Conclusion CC, being a top level spell, is powerful as a defensive mechanism and is a best (and costly) way for high-level mage/sorcerer to remain powerful in Dead/Wild Magic zones, but is certainly not overpowered at all as an offensive spell.